If this is your first time visiting Una Voce NH, welcome. The Mission of Una Voce NH is to promote the spread of the offering of the Traditional Latin Mass(TLM) in New Hampshire. As the official voice of Una Voce International in New Hampshire, our goal is to unite traditional Catholics throughout the state in a network to support and promote the celebration of the Mass according to the 1962 Missal of Blessed John XXIII. We need your help. Volunteer your efforts or donate to our cause!!!Thank you...and may God Bless you!!!Bill St. LaurentPresident,Una Voce New Hampshire Telephone 603-436-1378Billstl60@aol.com

St. Bonaventure, known as "the seraphic doctor," was born at Bagnoregio, in the Lazio region of central Italy, in 1221. He received the name of Bonaventure in consequence of an exclamation of St. Francis of Assisi, when, in response to the pleading of the child's mother, the saint prayed for John's recovery from a dangerous illness, and, foreseeing the future greatness of the little John, cried out "O Buona ventura"-O good fortune!

I received a great note from a brand new French priest, ordained for the mighty city of Paris on the great Feast of St. John the Baptist. He sent links for the video of his ordination in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Ten men were ordained, some of whom intend also to learn the traditional form of Holy Mass.

One of the priests said one of his first Masses at the well-known Saint Eugène, where the traditional form has been offered to the faithful for decades. Here’s photo from the Feast of the Most Precious Blood.

Kudos to the newly ordained in Paris!

I get there once in a while. It would be great to meet up.

Cardinal Müller Reacts to Dismissal in Interview with German Newspaper

Cardinal Müller was in Mainz, Germany, today, for a reunion of his high school class, and he granted an interview to the Allgemeine Zeitung, based in Mainz. Passages from the interview have been published in an article on the Allgemeine Zeitung’s website. The main topic was of course his dismissal from the CDF (see Rorate's report). We present here an excerpt from the article in an original Rorate translation (please credit upon replication).

“The five year term was over,” Cardinal Müller said. Although it is customary to renew the term, in his case Francis decided not to do so. Francis told him that it was his plan from now in general not to extend such terms, “and I was the first one for whom the plan was implemented,” said Müller. The pope did not give any further reason. And Müller himself says that he does not know of any further reason why the pope would not want him to continue. “There were no differences between me and Pope Francis,” said Cardinal Müller… He insisted that there was no quarrel about Amoris Laetitia, the Apostolic Exhortation in which Pope Francis allowed more flexibility in the pastoral care of the divorced and remarried, and which in some points he did not find complete agreement with Cardinal Müller. It was regrettable, however, Müller said, that the pope fired three of his officials a few weeks previously. “There were competent people,” he said. At 12 o’clock on Friday, he learned from Pope Francis himself that he wanted a new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “It doesn’t bother me,” said the 69 year old, smiling. “Everyone has to retire at some point.” He will stay in the Vatican, that much he has decided. “I will do scholarly work, continue to exercise my function as cardinal, and do what I can in the care of souls. I have enough to do in Rome.”

Fr. Martin recently wrote an article about how patriotic songs should not be sung during mass. His argument is essentially that most national hymns address the nation rather than God. In all honesty, I think he may be right. It would seem more appropriate to me for songs like America the Beautiful [NOT the magazine] to be sung before or after mass rather than during. However, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Perhaps he needs a safe space, free from these triggers and aggressions.

If Jesuit James Martin is against them, then let’s all be for them.

The other day after ordinations in the Diocese of Madison, the Extraordinary Ordinary lead us all in singing both the Salve Regina (also not directed to God), and God Bless America (not the magazine). Nobody foamed at the mouth or fainted from shock.

Let’s all sing – after Mass – the Battle Hymn of the Republic:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
“As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

It’s okay to have patriotic flags in churches, though they should be placed discreetly at the sides. It is okay to have a patriotic songs on certain national holidays.

For the record:

Cardinal Müller's letter to Bishop Fellay on the necessary conditions for "full re-establishment of communion" with the SSPX

Rorate Caeli Blog

Last weekend, as rumors swirled of Cardinal Müller's imminent dismissal from his post as Prefect of the CDF, the French website Medias-Presse.Info published what it claimed to be an excerpt from an important letter sent by the Cardinal to Bishop Bernard Fellay regarding the conditions for an accord between the Vatican and the SSPX. Today the Remnant published an English translation of this excerpt; we reproduce the entire Remnant article below, followed by a note on the 1988 Professio Fidei mentioned in it. Rorate's own sources have confirmed the authenticity of this text.

Cardinal Müller's Letter to Bishop Fellay

From www.medias-presse.info comes the following excerpt of a letter from Cardinal Müller to Bishop Bernard Fellay. According to www.medias-presse.info, Cardinal Müller's letter was communicated to all SSPX members by the SSPX General House.

Excerpt from Cardinal Müller's letter:

“As you know, Pope Francis has many a time manifested his benevolence towards your Priestly Society, granting, in particular, to all priest members the faculty of confessing the faithful validly and by authorizing local Ordinaries to grant licences for the celebration of the marriages of the faithful who follow the pastoral activity in your Society. Furthermore, discussions are continuing concerning questions relative to the full re-establishment of the communion of your Society with the Catholic Church.

In relation to this, with the approbation of the Sovereign Pontiff, I judged it necessary to submit to the Ordinary Session of our Congregation (which met on May 10 last) the text of the doctrinal Declaration which was transmitted to you during the meeting of June 13, 2016, as the necessary condition in view of the full re-establishment of communion. Here are the unanimous decisions of all the members of our Dicastery in this regard:

1) It is necessary to require the adhesion of the members of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X to the new formula of the Professio Fidei dating from 1988 (c.f. annexe). Consequently, it is not sufficient to ask them to express the Professio Fidei of 1962.

2) The new text of the doctrinal Declaration must contain a paragraph in which the signatories declare in an explicit manner their acceptance of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and those of the post-conciliar period, by granting to said doctrinal affirmations the degree of adhesion which is due to them.

3) The members of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X must recognize not only the validity, but also the legitimacy of the Rite of the Holy Mass and of the Sacraments, according to the liturgical books promulgated after the Second Vatican Council.”

www.medias-presse.info adds that Cardinal Müller concluded the letter saying that “during the Audience granted to the Cardinal Prefect on May 20 2017, the Sovereign Pontiff approved these decisions”. The French website also adds that in his accompanying letter to SSPX priests, Father Christian Thouvenot, Secretary General of the SSPX, recalled the words of Bishop Fellay after the meeting of the major superiors in Anzère, Switzerland, on June 28 2016:

“The Society of Saint Pius X does not seek primarily a canonical recognition, to which it has a right because it is Catholic. The solution is not simply juridical. It pertains to a doctrinal position which it is imperative to manifest [...] Divine Providence will not abandon Its Church whose head is the Pope, Vicar of Jesus Christ. That is why an incontestable sign of this restoration will reside in the signified will of the Sovereign Pontiff to grant the means for re-establishing the order of the Priesthood, the Faith and Tradition – a sign which will be, furthermore, the guarantor of the necessary unity of the family of Tradition”.

I, N., with firm faith believe and profess each and everything that is contained in the Symbol of faith, namely:

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.

I also firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals.

Moreover, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.

On Sunday, July 2nd at 5:00 p.m., on the external solemnity of the titular feast day of the Church of the Most Precious Blood in New York City, the Sacred Constantinian Military Order of St George will sponsoring a Solemn High Mass in the traditional rite, accompanied by the Mass for Three Voices of the 17th-century Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante. The church is located at 113 Baxter Street in Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood.

For the record: Cardinal Müller's letter to Bishop Fellay on the necessary conditions for "full re-establishment of communion" with the SSPX

Last weekend, as rumors swirled of Cardinal Müller's imminent dismissal from his post as Prefect of the CDF, the French website Medias-Presse.Info published what it claimed to be an excerpt from an important letter sent by the Cardinal to Bishop Bernard Fellay regarding the conditions for an accord between the Vatican and the SSPX. Today the Remnant published an English translation of this excerpt; we reproduce the entire Remnant article below, followed by a note on the 1988 Professio Fidei mentioned in it. Rorate's own sources have confirmed the authenticity of this text.

Cardinal Müller's Letter to Bishop Fellay

From www.medias-presse.info comes the following excerpt of a letter from Cardinal Müller to Bishop Bernard Fellay. According to www.medias-presse.info, Cardinal Müller's letter was communicated to all SSPX members by the SSPX General House.

Excerpt from Cardinal Müller's letter:

“As you know, Pope Francis has many a time manifested his benevolence towards your Priestly Society, granting, in particular, to all priest members the faculty of confessing the faithful validly and by authorizing local Ordinaries to grant licences for the celebration of the marriages of the faithful who follow the pastoral activity in your Society. Furthermore, discussions are continuing concerning questions relative to the full re-establishment of the communion of your Society with the Catholic Church.

In relation to this, with the approbation of the Sovereign Pontiff, I judged it necessary to submit to the Ordinary Session of our Congregation (which met on May 10 last) the text of the doctrinal Declaration which was transmitted to you during the meeting of June 13, 2016, as the necessary condition in view of the full re-establishment of communion. Here are the unanimous decisions of all the members of our Dicastery in this regard:

1) It is necessary to require the adhesion of the members of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X to the new formula of the Professio Fidei dating from 1988 (c.f. annexe). Consequently, it is not sufficient to ask them to express the Professio Fidei of 1962.

2) The new text of the doctrinal Declaration must contain a paragraph in which the signatories declare in an explicit manner their acceptance of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and those of the post-conciliar period, by granting to said doctrinal affirmations the degree of adhesion which is due to them.

3) The members of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X must recognize not only the validity, but also the legitimacy of the Rite of the Holy Mass and of the Sacraments, according to the liturgical books promulgated after the Second Vatican Council.”

www.medias-presse.info adds that Cardinal Müller concluded the letter saying that “during the Audience granted to the Cardinal Prefect on May 20 2017, the Sovereign Pontiff approved these decisions”. The French website also adds that in his accompanying letter to SSPX priests, Father Christian Thouvenot, Secretary General of the SSPX, recalled the words of Bishop Fellay after the meeting of the major superiors in Anzère, Switzerland, on June 28 2016:

“The Society of Saint Pius X does not seek primarily a canonical recognition, to which it has a right because it is Catholic. The solution is not simply juridical. It pertains to a doctrinal position which it is imperative to manifest [...] Divine Providence will not abandon Its Church whose head is the Pope, Vicar of Jesus Christ. That is why an incontestable sign of this restoration will reside in the signified will of the Sovereign Pontiff to grant the means for re-establishing the order of the Priesthood, the Faith and Tradition – a sign which will be, furthermore, the guarantor of the necessary unity of the family of Tradition”.

I, N., with firm faith believe and profess each and everything that is contained in the Symbol of faith, namely:

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.

I also firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals.

Moreover, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.

As we have for a few years running, we got up to three photoposts for Corpus Christi this year. It is certainly encouraging sign that each of them has included Masses celebrated in the proper Use of a religious order: Premonstratensians in the first, Dominicans in the second and third, although the Dominican Mass in this post was celebrated on the feast of the Sacred Heart. I also include a Mass for the feast of St John the Baptist, the first solemn EF celebrated in the cathedral of St Andrew in Victoria, British Columbia, since the liturgical reform. As always, we are very grateful to all those who sent these in. Continue the work of evangelizing through beauty!

Cathedral Basilica of Ss Peter and Paul - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cathedral of St Stephen - Owensboro, Kentucky

Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini - Rome, Italy (FSSP)

Tradition is for the young!

Shrine of Christ the King - Chicago, Illinois (ICKSP)

Chapel of Our Lady of Corpus Christi - Corpus Christi, Texas

Oratory of St Joseph - Detroit, Michigan (ICKSP)

St Mary’s - Greenwich, Connecticut

St Francis de Sales - Benedict, Maryland

St Dominic, Youngstown, Ohio (Dominican Mass for the feast of the Sacred Heart)

St Andrew’s Cathedral - Victoria, British Columbia (Mass of St John the Baptist)

Exclusive Text by Benedict XVI: The Crisis that has subverted the Church is a Crisis of Liturgy Above All

By Rorate Caeli Blog

The Russian edition of volume XI of the Opera Omnia of Benedict XVI Ratzinger was published this Easter (a common date this year for East and West) and Pope Benedict XVI had been asked at the beginning of the project, in 2015, to write a preface -- which he did.

Corriere della Sera provided the Italian version of the Russian publication, which we now present in English:

Benedict XVI [Corriere della Sera, April 15, 2017]

Nihil Operi Dei praeponatur - "Let nothing be set before the Divine Worship." With these words, Saint Benedict, in his Rule (43,3), established the absolute priority of Divine Worship in relation with any other task of monastic life. This, even in monastic life, was not necessarily obvious, because for monks the work in agriculture and in knowledge was also an essential task.

In agriculture, as also in crafts, and in the work of formation, there could be temporal emergencies that might appear more important than the liturgy. Faced with all this, Benedict, with the priority given to the liturgy, puts in unequivocal relief the priority of God himself in our life. "At the hour for the Divine Office, as soon as the signal is heard, let them abandon whatever they may have in hand and hasten with the greatest speed." (43, 1)

In the conscience of the men of today, the things of God, and with this the liturgy, do not appear urgent in fact. There is urgency for every possible thing. The things of God do not ever seem urgent. Well, it could be affirmed that monastic life is, in any event, something different from the lives of men of the world, and that is undoubtedly fair. Nevertheless, the priority of God which we have forgotten is valid for all. If God is no longer important, the criteria to establish what is important are changed. Man, by setting God aside, submits his own self to constraints that render him a slave to material forces and that are therefore opposed to his dignity.

In the years that followed Vatican II, I became once again aware of the priority of God and of the divine liturgy. The misunderstanding of the liturgical reform that has spread widely in the Catholic Church led to putting ever more in first place the aspect of instruction and that of one's own activity and creativity. The action of men led almost to forgetting of the presence of God. In such a situation, it becomes ever clearer that the existence of the Church lives on the just celebration of the liturgy, and that the Church is in danger when the primacy of God does not appear anymore in the liturgy, and therefore in life. The deepest cause of the crisis that has subverted the Church is located in the effacing of the priority of God in the liturgy. All this led me to dedicate myself to the theme of the liturgy more widely than in the past because I knew that the true renewal of the liturgy is a fundamental condition for the renewal of the Church. The studies collected in this volume 11 of the Opera Omnia are based on this conviction. But in the end, despite all the differences, the essence of the liturgy in East and West is one and the same. And therefore I hope that this book may aid also the Christians of Russia to understand in a new and better way the great gift that is given to us in the Sacred Liturgy.

Vatican City, on the feast of Saint Benedict

July 11, 2015

Note: The Russian volume, according to the Moscow Patriarchate news website Pravmir should be published at the end of 2017 or early 2018, as part of a joint venture between the Vatican publishing house (Libreria Editrice Vaticana-LEV) and the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House (Издательство Московской Патриархии), which will also see books by the Patriarch published by the LEV in Italian translations).

You Suggest: Traditional Carmelites need help building a new monastery

There is a Carmelite community in Elysburg, PA, that uses the Tridentine Mass and Breviary exclusively and who need help building a new monastery. Because they are true blue cloistered nuns (no internet use, no videos, no CDs - just joyfully hidden away in their monastery), I wondered if you might be able to alert your readers to their need.

Besides living across the street from a rather noisy rifle range, they have such an abundance of vocations that they need more space as more and more young women continue to be drawn to their authentic way of life (they are almost 30 sisters now and most of them are in white veils). I myself gave them $500 at Christmas and hope to make another generous donation when the tax refunds arrive and I know that they would deeply appreciate any assistance, even $5. I see it as an investment with heavenly dividends; they tell everyone that helps them in any way, “May God reward you,” and they mean it. They have already purchased property and the excavation work has been completed for their new monastery in Fairfield, PA.

Checks can be sent to:

Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

430 Monastery Rd.

Elysburg PA 17824

There is also a non-profit group of friends and benefactors who have created a way to donate online. CLICK HERE to donate online.

- See more at: http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/04/you-suggest-traditional-carmelites-need.html#more

Good Friday, 7:30pm, Lower Church
Ma ss of the Presanctified - Intercessions, Passion, Reproaches, Veneration of the True Cross.
Nota Bene - the Ge'ez community Mass is at 3pm, and may run into the start time of Mass.

Easter Sunday, 10:00am, Lower Church

Saint Benedict Center, Still River(Harvard), MA
THURSDAY, APRIL 13TH – HOLY THURSDAY
High Mass at 7:30 p.m. followed by the Procession of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Which will be placed at the Altar of Repose.
Watch and Pray… Please keep strict silence on the monastery grounds from after Holy Thursday Mass until after Mass on Good Friday.
You are invited to represent your intentions by leaving a single rose on the Altar of Repose during the hours of the watch.

FRIDAY, APRIL 14TH – GOOD FRIDAY
Reading of the Passion, Adoration of the Holy Cross and the Mass of the Presanctified, 3 p.m.

Holy Week Schedule for St. Mary’s in Norwalk, Connecticut
William Riccio

St Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, has scheduled its entire Holy Week Triduum in the Extraordinary Form for the sixth year in a row. The Rev. Richard Cipolla, pastor, is the celebrant of all the Masses and services.

Observance of the Triduum begins on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. with the singing of Tenebrae. Matins and Lauds will be sung on Good Friday and Holy Saturday at 8 a.m as well. Maundy Thursday will have the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7, with procession to the Altar of Repose, followed by Vespers and stripping of the altars. An all-night vigil at the repository will continue through noon on Good Friday.

The procession with the Cristo Muerte in 2016, courtesy of Stuart Chessman.

The Liturgy of Good Friday takes place at 3 p.m. with Collects, Passion, Prayers for the Church, Unveiling of the Cross, Veneration, and Mass of the Pre-Sanctified.

At 7pm, the traditional procession of the Cristo Muerte takes place, with Bishop Frank Caggiano presiding. The procession is followed by Compline, the washing and anointing of the statue and shrouding with the funeral pall. Another all-night vigil takes place at the tomb until noon on Saturday.

On Holy Saturday, the vigil begins at 7pm with the lighting of the New Fire, Exsultet, Prophecies, Blessing of New Water and First Mass of Easter.

Easter Day, the regular schedule of Masses has English Masses at 8 and 11:30, Spanish at 1:15 and Extraordinary Form at 9:30.

Is the SSPX in “schism”?

Posted on 13 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Some people in the media, especially liberals, when the mention the SSPX, bray that they are “schismatic”. No matter how many times this is clarified, they bray that the SSPX is “schismatic”.

No.

When I was at the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei“, we knew the situation. It hasn’t changed. Now I see that at the end of March the former President of the PCED, His Eminence Darío Card. Castrillón Hoyos told Rome Reports about the situation of the SSPX:

CARD. DARÍO CASTRILLÓN
“We always agreed on one thing: they never entered down the path of heresy. They had moments when they were away, but technically they never made any complete schism or heresy. For example, they did not create a separate jurisdiction, because to create a jurisdiction outside the jurisdiction of the Church, that means you want to separate.” [NB: The SSPXers don’t have any jurisdiction to (for example) establish parishes, witness marriages, grant dimissorial letters for ordinations, give dispensations, give faculties to priests, etc.]

[…]

Within the last couple years progress has been made. Pope Francis, in a round about way, granted them faculties validly to absolve sins in regular confessions. He has more recently taken steps to remove problems with marriages witnessed in their chapels. This is all very positive.

I sincerely look forward to the moment when all these issues are resolved in clear, canonically unambiguous, manifest, undisputable unity. The SSPX has a great deal to offer.

Last night, Tuesday in Holy Week, His Excellency Most Reverend Robert C. Morlino, the Extraordinary Ordinary, Bishop of Madison, celebrated the Chrism Mass. The bishop blessed all the special oils used during our sacred rites in the upcoming year. Customarily, the priests of the diocese who are able attend the Chrism Mass, not only in a sign of unity but also, practically, to receive the oils for their parishes.

My friend Fr. Heilman, who writes at Roman Catholic Man, records that, this year, Bp. Morlino asked the priests of the diocese – beginning in September – to encourage reception of Holy Communion on the tongue, while kneeling.

Thus,…

In his Chrism Mass homily, Bishop Morlino highlighted the fact that the Catholic Church is very good at social issues at every level – Catholic organizations, dioceses, parishes and individuals – but, ours is a crisis of faith, revealed by less than 25% of Catholics attending Mass any longer (less than 5% in many parts of Europe). Where we are failing is in a lack of fervor in our faith, Bishop stated. This is most evident in how we, as priests, are offering the Mass, and how the faithful are praying the Mass.

Bishop Morlino went on to speak about “actuosa participatio” as being more about “actual participation” than “active participation.” [Sound familiar?] Bishop lamented that we seem to feel everyone needs to be busy “doing something” at the Mass, when it is more important that we are deeply contemplating what is being done at the Mass … that God is made Present – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. This should stir our soul and fill us with awe and wonder. But, are we too busy to take notice?

Last Fall, as part of [the] Bishop’s overall plan to add sacred beauty and reverence to all Masses in his diocese, Bishop Morlino encouraged all of his priests to strongly consider Cardinal Sarah’s call to offer the Mass ad orientem. Bishop Morlino then announced he would, from now on, be offering all of his Masses ad orientem.

Now, during last evening’s Chrism Mass, Bishop Morlino concluded his homily by appealing to all of his priests in his diocese to strongly encourage their parishioners to begin receiving Communion on the tongue while kneeling, beginning this September.

Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!

Cardinal Sarah's Address Pull No Punches
Gregory DiPippo, NLM

Catholic World Report has just published the text of an address sent by Robert Cardinal Sarah, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, to the 18th Cologne International Liturgical Conference. The subject of the conference, which concludes tomorrow, is the upcoming tenth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. His Eminence is extremely frank about the current state of crisis of the liturgy, indeed, no less frank than Pope Benedict was in the texts quoted by the Cardinal within the address. Here are some particularly interesting excerpts.
“...The particular care that should be brought to the liturgy, the urgency of holding it in high esteem and working for its beauty, its sacral character and keeping the right balance between fidelity to Tradition and legitimate development, and therefore rejecting absolutely and radically any hermeneutic of discontinuity or rupture: these essential elements are the heart of all authentic Christian liturgy. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger tirelessly repeated that the crisis that has shaken the Church for fifty years, chiefly since Vatican Council II, is connected with the crisis of the liturgy, and therefore to the lack of respect, the desacralization and the leveling of the essential elements of divine worship. ‘I am convinced,’ he writes, ‘that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy.’
Certainly, the Second Vatican Council wished to promote greater active participation by the people of God and to bring about progress day by day in the Christian life of the faithful (see Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 1). Certainly, some fine initiatives were taken along these lines. However we cannot close our eyes to the disaster, the devastation and the schism that the modern promoters of a living liturgy caused by remodeling the Church’s liturgy according to their ideas. They forgot that the liturgical act is not just a PRAYER, but also and above all a MYSTERY in which something is accomplished for us that we cannot fully understand but that we must accept and receive in faith, love, obedience and adoring silence. And this is the real meaning of active participation of the faithful. It is not about exclusively external activity, the distribution of roles or of functions in the liturgy, but rather about an intensely active receptivity: this reception is, in Christ and with Christ, the humble offering of oneself in silent prayer and a thoroughly contemplative attitude.
... it is necessary to recognize that the serious, profound crisis that has affected the liturgy and the Church itself since the Council is due to the fact that its CENTER is no longer God and the adoration of Him, but rather men and their alleged ability to ‘do’ something to keep themselves busy during the Eucharistic celebrations. Even today, a significant number of Church leaders underestimate the serious crisis that the Church is going through: relativism in doctrinal, moral and disciplinary teaching, grave abuses, the desacralization and trivialization of the Sacred Liturgy, a merely social and horizontal view of the Church’s mission. Many believe and declare loud and long that Vatican Council II brought about a true springtime in the Church. Nevertheless, a growing number of Church leaders see this “springtime” as a rejection, a renunciation of her centuries-old heritage, or even as a radical questioning of her past and Tradition. Political Europe is rebuked for abandoning or denying its Christian roots. But the first to have abandoned her Christian roots and past is indisputably the post-conciliar Catholic Church.
Some episcopal conferences even refuse to translate faithfully the original Latin text of the Roman Missal. Some claim that each local Church can translate the Roman Missal, not according to the sacred heritage of the Church, following the methods and principles indicated by Liturgiam authenticam, but according to the fantasies, ideologies and cultural expressions which, they say, can be understood and accepted by the people. But the people desire to be initiated into the sacred language of God.”

31 March 2017byFr. John ZuhlsdorfHis Eminence Robert Card. Sarah, Prefect of the CDW, gave an fantastic talk in Germany on the occasion of a colloquium held for the 10th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, Benedict’s XVI’s “emancipation proclamation” for the older, traditional form of the Roman Rite.You can find the exclusive English translation at Catholic World Report. I warmly urge you to check it out.This talk by Card. Sarah will be precious tool for renewal of our Catholic identity.I recommend that you give a copy to every priest you know and that you send one to your bishop and the director of liturgy for your dioceses, with and cheerful note of encouragement, of course.I was going to post excerpts, but I found myself wanting to post the whole thing. That wouldn’t do. Therefore, I contacted CWR and they gave me leave to record it for a podcast.PODCAzT 153 Card Sarah 2017 Summorum Pontificum Address[ 51:33 ]Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download (1727)

UPDATE: Card. Sarah’s book – The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise

This is the translation of Le Force du Silence, hitherto only in French, is as I write available to PRE-ORDER in ENGLISH. It will be released on 15 April (Holy Saturday). A great Eastertide reading gift to yourselves or friends.

This …. fellow… jumped around in a church like a testosterone impoverished squirrel to the words “credo negli essere umani… I believe in human beings”.

Fail.

I’d also like to point out that this is a Franciscan and not a rather-more-expected Jesuit. Surely not all Franciscans have this… proclivity! Please, tell us it isn’t so!

To you good, sensible Franciscans out there, can’t you do something about guys like this? Among yourselves?

Dear readers, if your priest does this sort of thing, or anything like it, subdue him with a net, medicate him, place him in restraints, and have him assessed by a trustworthy professional.

Traditional Holy Week once again in Denmark

Pontifical High Mass offered last year at St. Augustine Church in Copenhagen

For the first time since 2005, the Sacred Triduum will be offered in the traditional rite of Mass in the diocese of Copenhagen along with other significant Masses of the Lenten and Easter seasons. These Masses are organized by the St.Charles Borromeo Group, a lay association which promotes the use of the traditional liturgy throughout the diocese.

Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows in NY City, April 7

Gregory DiPippo

On Friday, April 7th at 7:15 p.m., a Solemn High Mass in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows will be celebrated in the traditional rite at the church of the Most Precious Blood, located at 113 Baxter Street in Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood. The Mass, which is sponsored by the Constantinian Order of St George, will be followed by the veneration of a Relic of the True Cross.

Guam Diocese Cracks Down on
Neocatechumenal Way Liturgical Abuse

New archbishop is putting a halt to liturgical abuse

AGATNA, Guam - A Guam archbishop is forcing a lay group of faithful to follow the Church's norms for liturgy.

Wednesday, Abp. Michael Byrnes of Detroit, recently appointed to the Agatna archdiocese, issued a statementcorrecting liturgical abuse committed by the Neocatechumenal Way ("The Way"), a charismatic lay group that offers practices outside of Church norms.

In his three-page letter, Byrnes acknowledged "a growing sense of distress about the multiplication of small communities in some parishes and about some of the differences in the way the Mass is celebrated among the small communities of the Neocatechumenal Way."

The Way, which gained canonical status in 2008, describes its method as a faith formation process based on practices of the Early Church designed for missionaries to bring the Gospel to remote locations. Worldwide there are more than 40,000 communities with over 1 million members.

In direct contradiction to canon law, e.g., the Way performs the consecration without a consecrated altar, and Communion is distributed in the hand and held until all — laity and priest alike — have received in the palm. The priest and parishioners then sit down and consume the Hosts together. Parishioner have also complained of being "held hostage" during Mass, where Way leaders have a habit of openly recruiting new members.

"The sooner we have unity and universal adherence as an archdiocese to the norms established by the Church in celebrating the body of Christ during the sacred celebration of the Mass," Byrnes stated, "the sooner we shall be on the path to reconciling with one another and bring healing to our divided diocese."

While bishops in other dioceses have placed moratoria on the group, Byrnes' statement is the first to address the eucharistic abuses. Citing the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), Byrnes laid out proper procedures for reception and consumption of Holy Communion, including that the priests must use the correct words of consecration and that all must consume the Host immediately.

Byrnes has placed a year-long freeze on establishing new communities of the Way while he reviews its theology and teachings to ensure catechists are sufficiently formed and certified. He is also requiring Mass to be held in a church or chapel at a consecrated altar and that parishioners be notified of the presence of the faith formation group. Additionally, a portion of the Way collection is to be used for supporting the parish where they meet, as members have previously failed to contribute to the parish.

This isn't the first time the Way has been corrected. In his 2005 Christmas address, Pope Benedict XVI admonished the group for its practices, requiring that they follow the norms of the Mass and avoid lay preaching.

Former archbishop Anthony Apuron, recently removed from his post over accusations of sex abuse, was a strong supporter of the Way. He allegedly fostered divisions among local Catholics, most notably deeding a diocesan seminary to the Way, forcing all seminarians to follow their program or leave. Byrnes has since returned the seminary to the archdiocese.

The Vatican investigated Abp. Apuron in 2016 after former altar boys claimed he molested them in the 1970s. Apuron had responded to the allegations by issuing sanctions against the victims' group Concerned Catholics of Guam and threatening lawsuits against his accusers. After placing Apuron on leave in the summer of 2016, the Vatican sent Abp. Savio Hon Tai Fai to be interim archbishop, until the appointment of Byrnes as coadjutor archbishop in November.

The new norms established for the Neocatechumenal Way will be in force by March 26, while the norms established for Holy Communion are effective immediately.

Philip Johnson Ordained in Raleigh, North Carolina

Gregory DiPippo, NLM

2017

We are very happy indeed to report that Deacon Philip Johnson of the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, has just been ordained to the priesthood today. I am sure that a great many of our readers have heard Philip’s story, which has been reported on many Catholic blogs, asking for prayers on his behalf.

While serving in the Navy, he was diagnosed at the age of only 24 with an inoperable brain tumor, of a kind which even in the best of circumstances would normally have taken his life in less than two years. After his discharge from the service, and medical treatment aimed at delaying the tumor’s progress, rather than curing it, he was accepted as a seminarian, and having completing his studies, has now been ordained.

His cancer has been “on hold” for about a decade at this point, a beautiful miracle; please offer a prayer that this will remain the case, and that he will be able to serve the Church as a priest for many, many years. Please also offer a prayer for His Excellency Bishop Michael Burbidge, who was recently transferred from the see of Raleigh to Arlingont, Virginia, and who has supported Fr Philip in his vocation. To them both, to Fr Philip’s family, and to the faithful of the Diocese of Raleigh, we offer our heartiest congratulations - ad multos annos!

Photos nicked from mutual friends on Facebook - I hope nobody minds!

Great news for Sacred Music promoters everywhere!

Firstly, did you know that the man who made the magnificent Garand rifle – which helped to win freedom for millions – was named John Cantius Garand?

Speaking of John Cantius, I received a note from St. John Cantius in Chicago – which is helping to win salvation of souls – where there is a magnificent music program, that they have signed a recording contract with Sony Classical.

I guess they have learned the lessons taught by the Benedictine nuns in Missouri, et al.

I attest that their disc Miserere: Music for Holy Week From St. John Cantius (US HERE – UK HERE) is, quite frankly, magnificent.

All is not quiet on the Sacred Music front these days.

Even Pope Francis said (HERE) that a lot of our music is “mediocre, superficial and banal”. Truer words were never spoken, and this from someone who doesn’t seem terribly interesting in liturgy.

And there is a fine initiative – Cantate Domino – to promote worthy sacred music for liturgical worship. HERE

Latin Mass to be offered at Holy Rosary(Corpus Christ Parish)
in Lawrence, MA on Sunday March 19

Fr. Joseph Medio, FPO, will offer the Traditional Latin Mass on Sunday, March 19, 2017 at Holy Rosary Church in Lawrence MA at 6:30 PM.

Directions too Corpus Christi Parish are below. The Church is located fairly conveniently off of Rte 495.

Directions:http://www.corpuschristilawrence.org/html/directions.htm

Please support the Traditional Latin Mass in northern Massachusetts.

A Beautiful New Parish Church in Indiana

Gregory DiPippo, NLM

Here is an encouraging report on the parish of St Pius X in Granger, Indiana, in the diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend, which will soon be dedicating a new church; encouraging not only because they genuinely needed a much larger church, but also because the new building is so much more beautiful than the old one. Compare what you see of the new church in this video with the photos of the old one given below. According to the parish’s website, the dedication ceremony starts at noon on Saturday, March 25, the feast of the Annunciation.

Mass for St Joseph in Newark, New Jersey, March 20

Gregory DiPippo, NLM

The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Newark, New Jersey, will have an EF Missa Cantata for the transferred Feast of St. Joseph on Monday, March 20th at 7:00 p.m., celebrated by Msgr. Joseph Ambrosio. Following Mass there will be Italian sweets (zeppole di San Giuseppe, sfinge) and coffee to celebrate Monsignor’s name day. The church is located at 259 Oliver Street.

Fota X Liturgical Conference in Ireland, July 8-10

Gregory DiPippo, NLM

St Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy is pleased to announce that the Fota X International Liturgy Conference will be held in Cork, Ireland, July 8-10, 2017. The subject of the conference is Resourcing the Prayers of the Roman Liturgy: Patristic Sources and will be explored by a panel of experts drawn from the United States, Germany and Ireland, among them Prof. Manfred Hauke (Lugano), Prof. Dieter Boehler (Frankfurt), Prof. Joseph Briody (Boston), Dr. Lauren Pristas (New York), and Gregory DiPippo (New Liturgical Movement). Registration for the Conference will open after Easter.

His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke celebrating Pontifical High Mass during the Fota IX conference last July.

Russian Orthodox now to celebrate more Western Saints including St. Patrick

St. Patrick of Ireland and other Western saints officially added to Russian Orthodox Church calendar

St. Patrick, the great enlightener of Ireland, [The Enlightener… great title] will be officially celebrated in the Russian Orthodox Church for the first time this year on March 17/30. At its March 9 session, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox, under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, officially adopted St. Patrick and more than fifteen other pre-schism Western saints into its calendar, according to the report published on the patriarchate’s official site.
The decision was taken after hearing a report from His Eminence Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, chairman of the commission for the compilation of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Menaion, or calendar of saints, with the proposal to include several ancient saints who labored in western lands before the Great Schism of 1054. [NB… before 1054…]The commission, created on September 18, 2014 by the blessing of His Holiness, had been working on compiling a list of western saints guided by the following criteria: their unblemished confession of the Orthodox faith; the circumstances in which their glorification took place; the absence of their names from polemical works against the Eastern Church and rite; and their present veneration in foreign dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church and other Local Churches.

Also considered were the “Complete Menaion of the East” by Archbishop Sergius (Spassky), the report of St. John Maximovitch to the Holy Synod of the Russian Church Abroad in 1952, the articles of the Orthodox Encyclopedia and the Snaxarion compiled by Hiermonk Macarius of the Athonite monastery of Simenopetra.
The Western saints added into the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church are: [Note the French influence…]

Also approved and recommended for Church-wide liturgical use was the texts of the service to the Synaxis of Saints of Diveevo, the service to St. Hilarion of Optina, and the troparion and kontakion to St. Adrian of Ondrusov.